New Lethes

What is New Lethes?

New Lethes is an experimental first person exploration game based on Situationist theory. The Situationists were a group of European intellectuals, loosely associated from the 1950s to the 1970s. Their early work focussed on the ways in which environments can subtly influence behaviour, and reproduce power relations. New Lethes explores these ideas.

Additional Information

New Lethes was created by a single independent game developer, Colestia (with thanks to St Gulik). Contact me at colestia3@gmail.com, or on Twitter @colestia3.

Press

'Beauty is in the street. The Situationists knew this. They were also aware that power structures have always been embedded in the urban tissue and yet were cunning enough to employ play and exploration and the hijacking of art and space as tools of understanding and change. And now, many years after the death of Guy Debord, a game has been released to remind us of those brilliantly wild ideas and practices. It's called New Lethes and it will delight itself in letting you explore its experimental environment as it examines the role of the built environment in human life.' - Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Indiegames.com

'The architecture of the city was targeted by the Situationists as a prevalent means by which capitalism held a grip over people. As On Dérive demonstrated, it can be used to steer us physically through spaces, acting as a singular mass of singular thought—all of us easy to control and manipulate in service of the elite. This is what you see when New Lethes opens up, all those people walking the same path, dull and grey. In order to turn "the whole of life into an exciting game" the Situationists worked against what dérive exposed, and so must you in New Lethes, with a view to aimlessly wander the tiny labyrinth of city streets that no one else does. You must deliberately work against designs supposedly greater than you. You must dare to get lost.' - Chris Priestman, KillScreen